2025 recap of the 2025 recap

Author

Marcos Monteiro
December 10, 2025

I have just received Beehiv’s recap for the year.

I have written so sparingly that I didn’t think so many people have read me, and even liked what I wrote.

I know their metrics are always presented in a way that makes everyone happy, regardless of the real data, but I have sent only 13 newsletters this year, and they seem to have been very well-received.

So, to all of you who stood here, without any hope of receiving that dopamine fix of social media, without any expectation of regularity in writing — let alone in the subject of the writing —, from the bottom of my heart, Thank you. God bless you.

This was a horrible year with many good moments, and knowing that there are people who are interested in what I have to say was certainly one of the best.

(For those who haven’t heard, I have set up a Buy me a Coffee account, in which, well, you can buy me a coffee if you appreciate my work. I also made a paid tier there, in which I posted videos on the symbolism of the planets, and will follow making videos on the basic blocks of our art).

→ I had to stop my judgments on horse races this year, because some stupid law change made them illegal in betting sites in Brazil. My good friend Goritsa Svortsan sent me a site in which the races are presented, and I’ll try to resume my Lillycoin spending next year.

I’ll leave you with some old astrological answer from Quora. See you soon, hopefully before Christmas. Have a blessed Advent.

Can you make a living with astrology?

Yes. It’s not always easy, but being a freelancer in any activity is hard at times. I still have some income from my translation work, but its important is secondary, and decreases steadily over time.

Note: that was a long time ago. I very rarely do translation or edition work nowadays.

Which one should I trust more, Vedic astrology or Western astrology?

Both, and neither. Both are well-adjusted and time-tested systems, but neither of them works without a decently-trained astrologer behind. Trust a decent astrologer which uses one of them consistently.

In your birth chart, note the exact position of your Sun (Degree, minute, and if possible, second).

Cast a chart for the place where you were born, for your birthday. Adjust it until the position of the Sun in this chart matches the exact position of the Sun in your birth chart (the actual final date might not even be your birthday, maybe one day before, or after, that). That’s your solar return for that year.

Alternatively, you may just download a free astrological software, put on your natal data, then ask the software to calculate a Solar Return for the year you want. That is probably easier.

It works by symbolic analogy.

No, there is no “solid scientific justification” to back it.

Try to find former clients, and ask around.

Sometimes, the astrologer posts comments from former satisfied clients (I do once in a while; that’s good advertising), but I admit that’s a bit biased, we will never post a bad comment :).

If you can’t do it, read what they write online, and see if it makes sense.

I will use myself as an example, because it’s the closest I can find :). I try to write examples (horary charts, the occasional natal chart from someone famous — preferably dead) in my Facebook page (I try to do it in my Instagram account, too).

But I’m by no means the only one that does it, many other astrologers regularly post examples of their own work.

For the same reasons kings and princes used to do, for the same reason wealthy businessmen often do, for the same reason Hitler did.

To obtain information that they can use to plan their course of actions.

You may think they’re all stupid, that there’s nothing to astrology, or that there might be something to it. They don’t really care 🙂 

Scorpius, the scorpion, for most people.

It’s “Cor Scorpionis”, the Heart of the Scorpion.

Native Americans from the Tupi nation identify it, if I’m not mistaken, as the Head of the Mboitata constellation (a terrible snake with eyes of fire).

I have no idea; I know who’s the best astrological teacher.

My teacher, John Frawley, is one of the best Traditional astrologers in the world (at least, the best I know of).

His knowledge and his teaching skills are unparalleled, and his kindness is even greater.

It’s the most commonly known level of astrology; most people think it’s the only astrology that there is.

Natal astrology is the astrology of birth charts, which judges the general possibilities and impossibilities of a person from the chart cast for the moment and the place in which the same person was born.

It includes, besides judging the chart itself, the investigation of events in the life of the person — the native — using techniques such as primary directions, secondary progressions, profections, solar and lunar returns, etc.

No.

It’s a (mostly) Zodiacal constellation.

That is, it’s a group of stars (constellation) that is around the Zodiac (an ideal belt around a great circle called Ecliptic).

A sign is not a group of stars, it’s a division — an ideal division — of this Zodiacal belt.

Both the constellation of Ophicus and the difference between a sign and a constellation have been known for more than two thousand years.

Yes, and no.

Astrology doesn’t really tell the future. It shows the essence of the present, and how it will develop according to its essential nature.

And it’s not based on the Zodiac, or, at least, not on it alone. It’s based on the planets, the relationships between them, the signs, and the houses.

What activities should I avoid while Mercury is in retrograde?

Reading astrogarbage about Mercury retrograde. This is propaganda, not astrology.

Compatibility between people has precious little to do with sun-signs.

See, that’s why so many people mock astrology, or say it’s rubbish.

Cancers are 1/12th of the world’s population. Capricorns are another 1/12th. The idea that you can predict how the relationships between 1/6 of the people in the world based on the month they were born sounds stupid because, well, it is.

Real synastry (even though it’s vastly overestimated) is way more complicated than that.

I don’t think anyone really knows that, or that it can be known for sure.

The fact is that most civilizations — and most peoples that never settled to found a civilization — seemed to have some sort of astrology (meaning: some sort of celestial symbolism, plus some sort of technique to relate that with human affairs).

It seems that the capacity to look at the sky and -- through the lens of one’s worldview, culture, religion, etc — read it as something with meaning is inherent to the human being.

Our specific branch(es) of astrology (Western astrology, be it “traditional” or “modern”, in any of their varieties) seems to come from three main sources: a) the astrologies that existed in the decaying Roman Empire and the ones that came before it from the same general area (Babylon, Egypt, etc); b) the “new” worldview/culture/religion/tradition created by Christianity, and c) influences from other branches of astrology with whom the West maintained some kind of contact (Persian, Indian, etc).

How do you persuade someone that astrology is not supported by evidence and is thus meaningless for telling them anything?

You can’t, because it’s not. Good luck, anyway.

Well, that’s it. See you!